While the disease normally attacks the lymph nodes, Max's cancer was found in the bones of his right arm and left knee. The condition was so unusual, his father, David, recalls, that doctors at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan had never seen it before.

His physicians put Max on a treatment protocol, which lasted two years and, thankfully, sent his cancer into remission.

David Plotkin, a hedge-fund trader, had spent most of his life on Wall Street. As he dealt with Max's condition, he also learned quite a bit about the finances of pediatric-cancer research. And one of the things he learned was that it's the orphan child of cancer research.

"Pediatric cancer research is the most underfunded of all cancer research," he said. "For every dollar donated to the American Cancer Society, less than three cents go to pediatric cancer research. Less than 4 percent of all federal cancer research funding goes to it."

The reason is that while pediatric cancer is a leading cause of death among children, the number of cases pales in comparison with adult cancers.

The hedge fund where Plotkin worked had closed it doors during the recession, so in December 2008 he decided on a new focus to his life: The family created the Max Cure Foundation, dedicated to raising funds for pediatric cancer research. One of its goals is to raise $5 million to underwrite the creation of a research lab in Sloan-Kettering's pediatrics department.

But Plotkin, who moved from Manhattan to Tenafly last year, didn't just want to ask people to write checks.

"The way the Max Cure Foundation approaches fund raising is that we want to inspire people first about the cause," he said. "If you get them involved in events they'll want to come back, and eventually they'll want to give."

Toward that end, the foundation is always looking for engaging ways to encourage participation. When Plotkin heard about the GreenSneakers program, which raises money by recycling kids' old sneakers and sending them to impoverished countries around the world, he thought it was a perfect match.

He came up with an idea the foundation calls Dunk Your Kicks: Elementary school students bring their old sneakers into school, where GreenSneakers sets up collection bins into which the kids get to "dunk" their sneakers, just as if they were dunking a basketball.

"What kid doesn't want to dunk?" Plotkin asked.

GreenSneakers donates an average of $1 per pair to the foundation.

The program got off the ground, so to speak, early last month at the Smith Elementary School in Tenafly, where Max is now a third-grade student.

"One of the things we really try to teach our kids is social responsibility," said Neil C. Kaplicer, the school's principal. "This program touched upon that in so many aspects."

The program began with an assembly where Max spoke.

"To hear this third-grader talk to the entire school about being a cancer survivor was very moving," Kaplicer recalled. It also spurred tremendous participation.

"We collected over 600 pairs of shoes," the principal noted — not bad for a school with just 373 students. "Parents brought in their old sneakers. The staff went through their closets."

As a reward, former New York Knick Trent Tucker — who shares a publicist with the Max Cure Foundation and has become an ambassador for it — spoke at the school and will send every student a signed photograph.

"Trent came to one of our events last year and we spoke," David Plotkin said. "When we came up with this idea I thought: Who better to partner with than a former basketball player?"

The foundation has gotten Dunk Your Kicks into 10 Bergen County schools, including others in Tenafly and the Edith A. Bogert School in Upper Saddle River. The program has also been launched in Essex County, and schools in West Hartford, Conn. Plotkin also said it's about to begin in the Boca Raton, Fla. schools. The foundation has collected more than 3,000 sneakers so far.